I was doing some
maintenance on my car (#162) this week end and I had to remove the hood
side panels. I have done this before and it was a real pain reaching the
nuts on the back side of the cowl.

This time I
went to my local hardware store and bought some ”Jack nuts”.
These are expansion nuts much like the ones used in sheet rock . with
these installed it is now a five minute job to remove the hood sides as
the nuts are now captive behind the fiberglass.

Great idea, Don, and
much less complicated to do than my solution below.

Car 1254 --
Here is my project to make
it take less than a day to get the hood and sides off of
my '78. The split hood is nice, but getting at the engine
called for removing all the bolts on both sides of the
hood. Putting them all back was even more of a task. My
project requires some finishing, and
testing at highway
speeds, but seems to be an effective solution.

Follow-up
several years later: 2000+ miles at "around" 70 mph and no
problems.

I went to the local aluminum products
store looking for aluminum U channel. They sent me to
their recycle heap where I found this VINYL channel. $1
for a 6' piece that came from who knows what. Flathead 3/4"
bolts thru the vinyl and fiberglass, with washers and
lock washers below. I used 4 on each side. Those are
fiberglass drill flecks on the body. You are looking at
the radiator end, passenger side.

This view is from the front, driver's
side, looking toward the back end of the hood. See the
tire in the fender on the lower right?

Channel did NOT
want to bend, so my wife held it down while I drilled
thru the fender (after checking for clearance below)

The prior owner had chrome trim around
the bottom and sides of the hood. It looked like the
stuff you put on the edge of your car door. It looked
good, and helps fill up the groove. I reversed the bolt
of the top hood location, and held it on the car with
washers and a nut. Same thing in the top hole of the
radiator end of the hood.

So now the hood side rests in the U
channel along the fender along the bottom and is held
down in the groove by the bolts at the top front and top
rear of the side pieces.

To finish up: I think that 3/4"
bolts will do for the top bolts (in the circle above) and
I will replace them with chrome or Stainless Steel.
Fortunately, the holes in the hood still line up with the
the new protruding bolt. My PLAN is to use short flathead
bolds on the hood, with acorn nuts on the OUTSIDE -- to
fill up the unused holes, and then use acorn nuts on the
real bolts on the top so they all look the same.

Also, The top bolts on the grill end are just hooked
on to the plastic grill shell. I plan to reinforce that
by taking some 1 1/2 inch L shaped channel (I got 1"
aluminum, but it was too thin) and extending the bracket
that holds the radiator, so that it also will make a
backdrop for the hood bolt. See the picture below:

Looking at the radiator end inside the hood. The
white lines above and below the big bolt are the existing
bracket. The yellow line is where the top of the new
bracket will be. (about twice as tall) The short white
lines are where the old bracket has made the L to hold on
the grill shell.(with that sharp screw) Notice how the
washer is caught behind the old bracket. The new one will
be big enough to back up the entire washer.

In reviewing this story in 2008, I don't find it as
clear as I would like. It has worked GREAT, and here is a summary of
what I did.

I changed the hood side panels so that they are only held
on by one acorn nut at the top front and one at the top rear of the hood
side panel. The bottom is held in place by a U shaped channel that the
bottom of the side panel rests in.

All holes, except the top ones, are filled in with very short
flathead bolts from behind the hood panel and an acorn nut on the
outside. They are fakes just to fill up the hole.

The top bolt sticks out from inside the cowl, and is held in place by
a nut. -- it stays there at all times.

I carry a small wrench on my keychain so I can remove the acorn nuts
anytime I want to.

If this is still not clear enough, please email me
GlassicAnnex@aol.com since
this is a very worthwhile project.